Adjustment of a lamp's properties is well known to be achieved via a remote control (RC). A disadvantage of a remote control is the necessity of the presence of the remote control on the right location at a random moment. Also a lot of different remote controls are already present in the living room for TV, audio, VCR, CD/DVD player/recorder, etc. Further, the different buttons on a remote control can be confusing to the user. Finally, the costs of a remote control and the accompanying receiver are relatively high.
Also control of electrical devices by the use of video cameras and movement detection software is known, wherein the user can control the electrical device by making gestures in front of the camera. Such systems require heavy duty processing power, have a relatively long response time, and are relatively expensive.
WO 2006/056814 describes a lighting system comprising a lamp and a control means comprising an infrared transmitter, an infrared receiver and a lens arrangement. The control means measure the intensity of the reflected infrared light, and changes the lamp brightness in reaction thereto. In this manner the lamp can be switched on and off, and can be dimmed by hand movements in the infrared beam. Such an arrangement is however relatively expensive and inaccurate, as the intensity of the reflected infrared signal heavily depends on the kind of object that is moved in the beam.
It is a goal of the invention to provide an improved, cheap, reliable and easy-to-use control system for lighting. A further goal of the invention is to provide a lighting system that is safe and comfortable for its users and their environment.